


The Feeling of Jealousy

by MaK



Category: Grojband
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-19
Updated: 2014-03-19
Packaged: 2018-01-16 06:59:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1336279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaK/pseuds/MaK
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Laney has been ignoring Corey the entire week and, though he would hate to admit it, it's got him feeling a little bit unnerved.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Feeling of Jealousy

To be honest, Corey wasn't sure what he'd call the feeling he was having. It started when Laney ignored his looks during band practice, instead texting away on her phone. It persisted through the rest of the week, where she continued to practically ignore him while she typed away. At first, Corey had thrown it over his shoulder. She's probably texting her overprotective mother or something; maybe Laney is even bleeting about the band to get them more popularity. After the first day, though, he got a bit angry. 

Corey, of course, knew that Laney's attention didn't belong to him, but that wouldn't stop the feeling of... something invading his chest and brain. On the third day, he had decided that he would try his best to get her away from her phone and to look at him like she used to. The plan would have been a lot easier if Laney had actually looked at him long enough to see what was up. Even when he suggested his crazy plan to electrify the entire band in order to be branded as electronica rock, Kin was the one to oppose it instead of the bass player. Sure, she nodded along when Kin spoke up, but otherwise she hadn't even bothered to look away from her cellphone. 

Obviously, speaking about danger wasn't going to grab her attention. On day four, Laney was over for practice early, per the norm, but had barely spoken a word to him other than her usual greeting. Whilst tuning his guitar, Corey glanced around the room for something that could possibly lead to him getting hurt. He wasn't dumb enough to do it, but he asked Laney, "Hey, wouldn't it be cool if I dangled from the stage lights?"

She shrugged, "You probably shouldn't do that, Core." For once, and to his relief, she looked up from her phone. "You'd bust your head open or something."

"Ha, yeah," he laughed. "You're right." The weird feeling left his chest and Corey found himself much more relaxed during practice. At least he had gotten Laney to put some care his way. 

After that, he assumed it would be okay. Laney did ignore her phone for the rest of practice. So, on the fifth day, when she did the same, Corey was more than just happy. He was ecstatic to have Laney not ignoring him; the weird feeling that had haunted him for the first few days had totally disappeared. That is, until she suddenly announced after Kon finished a killer drum solo, "I gotta leave early, guys."

Kin was the first to ask, "Really? You barely ever end practice on an early note." Kon voiced his agreement and looked even more confused than his brother.

Corey, suddenly tense with the same feeling engulfing him again, said, "Yeah, what's that all about, Lanes?" It took a lot of effort not to practically shout that. 

She was already packing up her bass when she responded, "I gotta go meet up with Larry."

After she left, Kin and Kon left, too. Corey sat down on the crusty couch and stared at the ceiling in bewilderment. Larry? Why was she hanging out with a Newman? He furrowed his brow as he went deeper in thought. Since when was Larry more important than the band? When did Larry start meaning more to Laney than he did? With his mind racing, Corey pondered just on what she was doing with Larry. He wanted to remind himself that her relationships were none of his business, but at the same time he was so bothered and uncomfortable with her lack of presence that it left him unnerved. Would Laney get angry if he asked about it? She seemed kind of in a rush to get out of the garage.

Suddenly, Corey was hit with the realization: that had to have been who she had been texting the entire week. It would only make sense. But, he rattled his brain for the answer, why?

Corey was left with that awful feeling that was similar to the one he had the time he watched Carrie buy a sweet new guitar. That feeling had left when said guitar ended up getting broken in one of Trina's diary fits, but Corey doubted the feeling would again go away because Laney's phone somehow got broken. He decided that, tomorrow, he'd simply have to ask her what was going on with her and Larry.

That plan would have worked out had she even shown up at his house after school. Corey sent her a frantic text, "Where are you?!"

After a few minutes, the response came. "Sorry, Core. I'm hanging out with Larry right now."

He felt angry again, but figured she didn't need to know that. Simply, he typed, "Why?"

She never responded, so he ended up telling Kin and Kon not to bother coming over, either. It didn't work if all of them weren't there. 

Corey repeated the episode from the day before where he sat on the couch and thought deeply into all of it. The whole process of giving himself a headache with several unanswered questions left him with wonder just one thing: was Laney dating Larry? That inquiry, out of many, was the one that left him the most disturbed. It didn't makes sense. Sure, the band rivalry could be ignored, but... but, what? He had to ask himself this, too. Why would he care that she's with Larry? It's not as if he cares about Laney like that. At least, he thought so. Corey began to doubt himself as he wondered about relationships and Laney and feelings. Luckily, the two pills he took for his headache left him drooling on the couch in restless slumber.

The next day, Laney walked in early. She was grinning and, much to Corey's excitement, there was no phone in sight. "Are you ready to rock out today, Core?" she asked.

"Oh, totally," he said, making little effort to hide his excitement.

Once the Kujira twins got their butts over to the garage, practice felt normal for once. The songs were still lacking lyrics, but Corey was able to finally end a guitar riff on a radical note instead of it suddenly fading away and sounding crummy. Kon noted his new enthusiasm and commented, "You're totally killing it today, bro! What's got you so super stoked?"

"Yeah!" Kin chimed in, "You were really irritated all week. What's so good about today?"

Laney didn't say anything, but she did raise her eyebrows in expectation and that was enough for him. Corey would say that it was because Laney wasn't ignoring him, but instead all he told them was, "I guess I woke up on the right side of the bed this morning!"

They began packing up, Kon occasionally picking on his younger brother by tapping away at the keyboard's keys while Kin was attempting to clean it off. Laney had made her way over to Corey's couch, magazine in hand and already reading away. He joined her and together they waved off the twins. 

Between the two of them, they were quiet for a little bit. Corey was happy with how things were at the moment - Laney being here, not leaving early, paying attention to him, frequently tapping her foot against his thigh. But, he was curious. Was this just today? Was she going to go hang out with Larry tomorrow and he'd be left with that unnerving feeling again?

He had to ask, "So, what were you doing all week long?"

She raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Corey bit his lip and gave his best attempt at explaining it. "It's just, suddenly you were ignoring me and junk. You kept texting away on your little phone all throughout practices and, I mean, you never do that kind of stuff. So, I was all confused. And then you left early for Larry, that shorty Newman, and after that you didn't even come to practice at all! I've had this weird feeling all week long, like something just isn't right and it all started with you not paying attention to me! Today was really cool, but I just gotta know what was up the entire time." He took a deep breath and felt a bit embarrassed after his long rambling. 

"I was working on a science project with him."

"Wait, what?" Corey asked, his voice cracking a bit. A science project? Not going off to hang out with her new boyfriend or something? A science project?

Laney set down her magazine. "Yeah, Core. We got paired up in science on Monday and we had to do a bunch of equations and make a model that had all the angle measures and stuff. It was a lot of writing and a lot more wood cutting. I have, like, thirty-nine splinters." She stuck her hand in his face to see. "But, yeah, I spent the whole week texting Larry to make sure he was doing his part instead of hanging out with Carrie or something. And then I had to go over to his house so we could make the dumb model."

A science project.

"Oh," he stated dumbly. A science project.

The bassist nodded her head and looked up at him in confusion. "Why were you so worried about it?"

Corey laughed loudly, feeling a tad nervous. "I thought you and him were dating or something!"

"Ew, no." 

"Pretty dumb, right?" he laughed, smacking himself on the forehead. "I got all worked up over some dumb idea I came up with. Jeez, I feel like an idiot."

Laney chuckled, "Were you jealous or something, Core?"

He wanted to slap himself on the forehead again. Jealousy! That was what he had been feeling the entire week. "Oh, yeah, I was mad jealous," he said, without thinking. After the words left his mouth, he questioned, why would he be jealous of Laney and Larry?

Corey looked over at his bass player, as if waiting for her to answer. She had grabbed her magazine again, but he could tell she wasn't really reading. Her face was red and he realized she was blushing and that left him with an even better feeling. 

"Can I ask you a question, then?" she asked.

"That was a question."

"A different question."

Corey nodded, "Yeah, go for it, Lanes."

She sighed heavily, seemingly to calm herself down. Like she had down before performing at Girl Fest. He grinned, no longer feeling jealous, but rather curious. "Do you, um, like... me?" Laney's voice was awful meek. Her face was still nearly as red as her hair and she glanced up at him, looking rather nervous.

He didn't miss a beat, "I think so."

The surprise in her face was cute, he thought. All her previous worry seemed to wash away as she nearly shouted, "Really!?"

"Yeah! I was thinking about it early, but I didn't know 'cuz I didn't know what jealousy was up until now, either. But, I mean, you're pretty rad and I was going mad nuts without you looking at me all the time. So, it would only make sense, right? I have a crush on you. I think you're cool and stuff." Corey grinned at the shorter girl, shrugging as if it was all nonchalant small talk.

"Wow," she said, slumping against the arm of the couch. "You said all that like it was so easy."

"Isn't it?" he questioned.

Laney shot back, "Not really. I've been crushing for about a year now and have choked up every time I wanted to tell you about it."

That was a bit of a revelation. Since when did Laney ever consider them more than best friends? The thought was sad, but Corey had assumed she'd say that she didn't really feel the same way and they'd just go about their business as best buddies. Apparently, he'd been out of the loop for a good year not to have seen all that.

"Seriously?" he asked, but the question was more than dumb. Laney nodded and a long quiet spell fell between them. He was left with another feeling he couldn't quite name; a feeling that branched off of Laney watching him with expectations and what he thought could be adoration. He couldn't keep eye contact, not with the feeling he had in his chest, so he stared at her shoulder. He stared pointedly at her shoulder while leaning and and planting an awkward, sloppy kiss on her lips that kicked the feeling right out of his chest and had him sighing with relief. "I feel so, so much better!"

Laney whispered out a small, "Me, too," while biting her lip. 

Corey would have to ask her what the feeling was that lead him to kiss her and what the feeling was afterwards. But, he could save that for later, because instead he felt like giving her a big hug and cuddling on the couch.

**Author's Note:**

> This ended up being way longer than it should have been... oops.


End file.
